Loyalties
by Eliza4892
Summary: Kate gets let in on a little secret.


Kate awoke to a warm hand on her arm and another one clasped over her mouth.

Sun had told her about the wake up call she received three nights ago from Juliet. The hand over her mouth, the late hour, it was all fairly familiar even though she'd never lived it before.

She opened her eyes to a different face than the one she expected.

"Jack," she tried to speak, but it came out muffled against his skin. Struggling underneath his grasp, she had the fleeting thought that, what with all the time he spent with Juliet, with the similarities between this visit and Sun's, maybe he wasn't one of them anymore. Maybe he was with the Others. Maybe she needed to get out of here now. Maybe she was just paranoid.

It was probably the latter. This was after all Jack; she had thought she had a pretty good grasp on who he was. Just lately, all that seemed to have fallen away. There were so many inconsistencies. So many questions and too few answers.

"Shh," he said, voice low. In the dark, she couldn't see his eyes very well, she couldn't read them. "Don't say anything, okay?"

She nodded, and a second later he removed his hand. She wouldn't have screamed anyway.

Kate sat up, body tense, alert for the sole fact that she didn't know exactly why he was here. But the tone of his voice reminded her of the Jack who had once asked her if she had his back, reminded her of the man who, with his very presence, gave her a feeling of safety, of security, that she could never understand. She couldn't help but be drawn to him.

"She's playing us." He began, and she knew without a doubt who he was talking about. "That's the reason Ben just left us there, and left her too. We're supposed to trust her. I'm supposed to trust her. I don't know what she wants or why, I just know that she's part of something, some plan."

She let out a breath, leaning back against the wall of her tent, reinforced by the trunk of a tree, something like relief washing over her. Paranoid, she thought. Definitely paranoid.

"I've known something was up for awhile. It was too easy. But I can't…I want to see what she's really up to." He said, stopping as they both heard something outside.

The shadow of someone passed by her tent, and it took her a moment to realize it wasn't actually a person. Just Vincent finding his way back to the beach. She bit her lip to keep from laughing at herself, and Jack seemed vaguely amused as well. They really were all on edge.

"You can't tell anyone this. No one. Not Sayid, or Sawyer, or whoever else. I know everyone deserves to know, and I know I'm taking risks. I'm gambling with a lot of lives, but goddammit Kate you have to trust me on this one." Jack looked down, shaking his head. "I shouldn't even be telling you. But there has to be someone who knows what I'm doing, who still trusts me."

She marveled at the fact that, after all the shit they've been through in the past few weeks, it's still her that he's chosen to tell. It seemed like he wasn't as far gone as she had thought.

"You promise you won't tell anyone?" He asked, looking for some type of confirmation.

It sucked that he asked her not to talk, as she had a ton of questions she wanted to ask. She wanted to know how much longer he was going to let this go on, what his plan was, what he knew about what Juliet was up to. If anyone found them out though, it would only cause more problems, and so she tried her best to keep her mouth shut. There would be a time and a place soon enough. And so she only nodded her response, grabbing onto his hand, in a move that surprised the both of them, and giving it a squeeze, a mute reassurance that she both understood, and still believed in him.

"Alright. Good." He looked like he didn't really know what to say or do. His eyes traveled down to where her hand was still covering his, locking them together like she had once before in the game room. She had gotten so used to not having him around, to telling herself that he wanted nothing to do with her and she should just get over it, that now that he was here, and actually talking to her, giving her the whole story, looking to her for trust, for back up almost, she couldn't tear herself away.

Slowly, she leaned closer to him, close enough to feel his breath against her face, and in a voice almost quieter than a whisper told him. "You're doing the right thing." She was trying to think of how to get her point across in the least amount of words. "And I'm glad you told me, but you don't have to worry about me not trusting you."

Kate pulled away at that, scooting back several inches and trying to gauge his reaction. He gave her a weak smile, and she thought maybe he didn't believe her, or that maybe she had overstepped. But upon closer inspection she could see the exhaustion in his face, the stress of having to lie constantly, of having to keep all of this a secret finally showing itself. Jack wasn't a liar, it wasn't in his nature, and so she knew it was taxing to him. It would be different if it was her, she thought, none to pleasantly. This was what she was good at.

Then, hesitantly, she let go of his hand, a silent reminder that he had to go, and he might as well do so now. With a nod, he rose, and slipped out of her tent.

She lay back down, and tried to go to sleep even though she knew that once she was awake she wouldn't be going back to sleep any time soon. Especially not knowing what she knew. This was going to get bad; she could feel it in her gut.

But at the very least, now she knew it was all an act.


End file.
